"¿Él quiere un té?"

32 Comments

I do not think that in the American english translation you would need to add an "a" even at a social gathering. I could be wrong though, but I do think that if I were proficient in spanish and was translating to english I would translate it as "does he want a tea." Also when tea, coffee or whatever is offered to an individual, as opposed to a group, I am not sure that more than one cup is ever implied. Therefore it does not seem that the offer would need to be clarified by the word "a".

The inclusion of the word "un" in the Spanish question suggests to me that "he" is being invited to sit down to a social gathering to drink tea while having a pleasant conversation. Without "un", it seems that the query would be merely offering some fellow a glass of iced tea or a cup of hot tea.

Actually, the only difference between the sentences with and without un is about the quantity of tea that he would want. With un, we are referring to one glass of tea "Does he want one glass of tea?", whereas without un, the quantity is indefinite (it can be one glass, or a whole kettle) Does he want some tea?

Totally agree with this explanation. The inclusion of un fits particularly well in a bar situation, where he is ordering un té (i.e. one glass/cup of tea), but he could be making a larger order too, say tres tés y dos cafés (three cups of tea and two cups of coffee).

Though in this particular sentence, the zero article (the absence of an article), definite article, and indefinite article all have the same end result, they don't mean precisely the same thing.

The zero article ("I want tea") produces a group noun in English, so that sentence means "I want something that qualifies as tea." The definite article ("I want the tea") means "I want some specific tea that's defined by context" (or "I want the tea option," if you consider it an elision). The indefinite article ("I want a tea") means EITHER "I want a cup of tea" (making the sentence an elision) or "I want some tea and am not particular as to the specific one".

All three options are correct English. Again, the end result is the same in this particular sentence, but notice how much of a difference it can make in others:

• zero article: "I own yellow houses at the end of the lane." = There are yellow houses at the end of the lane, and I own them.
• indefinite article: "I own a yellow house at the end of the lane." = There is one or more yellow house at the end of the lane, and I own one.
• definite article: "I own the yellow house at the end of the lane." = There is only one yellow house at the end of the lane, and I own it.

Spanish has these three types of article, too. The usage isn't entirely identical, but there's enough overlap that those sorts of nuances in applied meaning still apply.